Estimating the Effects of Obesity and Weight Change on Mortality Using a Dynamic Causal Model.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A well-known challenge in estimating the mortality risks of obesity is reverse causality attributable to illness-associated and smoking-associated weight loss. Given that the likelihood of chronic and acute illnesses rises with age, reverse causality is most threatening to estimates derived from elderly populations.

Methods

I analyzed data from 12,523 respondents over 50 years old from a nationally representative longitudinal dataset, the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The effects of both baseline body weight and time-varying weight change on mortality are estimated, adjusting for demographic and socio-economic variables, as well as time-varying confounders including illness and smoking. Body weight is measured by body mass index (BMI). In survival models for

SUBMITTER: Cao B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4481504 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature